


Safe and sound

by FaiaHae



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bodyguard, Barclay is a chef, Blood, Gunshot Wounds, M/M, Stern gets shot, but that's fine, it's...taakitz basically, semi graphic, wound treatment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-12-30 13:10:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18315902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FaiaHae/pseuds/FaiaHae
Summary: Barclay would like to have revelations about his feelings when his bodyguard isn't bleeding out on his couch





	Safe and sound

It wasn’t that Barclay didn’t  _ like  _ Stern.

 

Far from it- Stern was kind, reasonable, dependable. Stern was always at his elbow when he needed something, Stern brought extra water bottles to his cooking shows and waited in the wings and watched every episode, even the ones he’d been there during the filming of. 

 

But Barclay had a pretty big team, and of his two bodyguards, Stern was far quieter. The former FBI agent typically just deferred to Mama’s opinions on his security, which was fair- she was older then both of them and tough as nails.

 

Still, Barclay had always kinda wished he could spend more time with Stern.

 

This is not what he’d had in mind.

  
  


They were in the safehouse, alone, because Mama had gone after the fucking  _ shooter _ because,  _ oh yeah _ , someone had  _ tried to kill him. _

 

Barclay still wasn’t sure what the  _ fuck _ was happening there (he had some guesses, and he didn’t like any of them) but Mama had shoved a GPS into his hand, yelled at him to go, and torn off like a bat out of hell after the man.

 

Stern had bundled him into a car, and they’d driven off after the directions, and it was only once they were safe in a tiny goddamn cottage somewhere in the wilds of appalachia that Barclay noticed that  _ Stern  _ had been  _ Shot. _

 

“We need to get to a hospital-”

 

“No.” 

 

Barclay glared at Stern, who glared right back.

 

“We got all the way out here, we don’t know if we’ve been followed, and anyway, there aren’t any hospitals nearby. I’m fine, the bullet went through.”

 

Barclay was pretty sure that Stern wasn’t fine, but unfortunately, he was also completely right. Out the window, there was nothing but empty landscape, and it was starting to snow.

 

He wasn’t to let Stern bleed out, though. He let out a long, controlled breath.

 

“Okay, so there’s- medkits, in here, right? Since this is...that kind of a place? Right?”

 

Stern nodded, looking uncomfortable, but more social-uncomfortable and less pain-uncomfortable, and Barclay would take that. 

 

“Bathroom.”

 

Barclay located the bathroom and the medkit without too much trouble, and when he came back Stern was half-standing, in the process of getting up, and he crossed the room to push him back down in the chair.

  
“Sit down and take your coat off.”

 

“I need to secure-”

 

Barclay straddled Stern’s legs, keeping him in the chair.

 

“There’s a blizzard coming in, you don’t need to secure  _ shit. _ We’re not going anywhere, and no one’s coming after us. Let me treat the fucking bullet hole in your shoulder.”   
  


Stern looked ready to argue, but to Barclay’s surprise (and relief) he just moved to pull off his suit jacket, wincing as the sleeve tightened over the hole in his shoulder.

 

“Let me, okay?” Barclay leaned forward, pulling Stern forward into his shoulder as he helped stern ease the sleeves off.

 

He winced as he got the jacket off. Stern’s white shirt was absolutely soaked across the sleeve, and Barclay could see where the bullet had passed through the muscle on the outside of Stern’s arm. It looked pretty bad.

 

Stern’s fingers twitched, and he sighed.

 

“I...don’t think I can get the buttons.”

 

Barclay shook himself out of the trace he’d fallen into staring at the wound.

 

“Right.”

 

Barclay tried to keep his breathing steady as he unbuttoned Stern’s shirt, tried not to look too long at his chest (or the two curved scars under his pecs- he was certain this was not how Stern had envisioned coming out to his employer if he’d planned to at all). He probably should have thought a little bit longer about the fact that he found Stern attractive before he climbed into  _ his fucking lap _ .

 

He got the shirt loose and backed off a bit, climbing off to get the medkit. (had he imagined the way Stern was leaning into his shoulder when he’d been trying to get the sleeve off?)

 

He grabbed the roll of bandages, tore the roll off with his teeth, and climbed back onto Stern’s knees. He disinfected it first- and Stern flinched with his whole body and pressed his face into Barclay’s shoulder. Before he could think about it, Barclay wrapped an arm around his back and pressed his lips to the top of his head.

 

“Just a minute longer.”

  
He tried to keep the string of expletives he was cursing himself with  _ internal,  _ and got back to work on Stern’s shoulder. He finished the bandaging, and was leaning back to get off of Stern’s lap, when Stern’s free hand touched his shoulder.

 

“Barclay.”

 

“Y-”

 

He didn’t get a chance to react any further, because as he turned back towards Stern, his bodyguard pressed his lips against his.

 

Stern had intended it to be a short kiss, that much was clear, as it was practically chaste and he pulled away after a moment- and no, that wouldn’t do. Barclay fell into him, pressing Stern against the back of the chair- tasting Stern’s vanilla chapstick and the warmth of the spices from the food they’d sampled backstage, and Stern’s arm was around him and his hand was in his hair, and Barclay forgot about the gunshot entirely until Stern’s arm moved a bit too enthusiastically and he broke the kiss with a tiny hiss of pain.

 

Barclay pulled back, worried, but Stern pulled him back down and kissed his neck, resting his face in his shoulder.

 

“I’m fine, I just pulled the bandage a bit.”

 

Barclay huffed.

 

“You better be. I didn’t wait this long just for our first kiss to be our last.”

 

He  _ felt _ Stern’s eyebrows shoot up, and huffed out a laugh.

 

“Sorry, it’s probably....weird to have a crush on your bodyguard.”

“No weirder than it is to have a crush on your celebrity employer.” Stern’s tone was warm, and he pressed his lips to Barclay’s shoulder again, and Barclay thought...maybe after everything. This had all been worth it. 


End file.
